News and Publications

General Clinical Research Center

Established in 1974 with a generous gift from Mrs. William H. Black and Mr. and Mrs. William F. Black, and later supplemented by a donation from the Stein Endowment Fund, the General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) is in its 27th year of continuous operation. Financed by a grant of about $2 million annually from the National Center for Research Resources, National Institutes of Health, to provide facilities for investigator-initiated, peer-reviewed research with human subjects, the GCRC is the only one of 77 such centers in the United States that is not affiliated with a university or medical school. The GCRC aims to augment investigative collaborations among the clinicians and researchers at Scripps to facilitate the transfer of basic knowledge generated in research laboratories to the clinical arena, elucidate pathogenetic mechanisms of disease, and evaluate new modes of patient management.

The GCRC provides inpatient and outpatient environments in which investigators conduct studies in humans; the protocols followed are approved for safety by the Human Subjects Committee and for scientific merit by the GCRC Scientific Advisory Committee. The GCRC grant pays many of the costs of this research. GCRC facilities include a highly trained research nursing staff in a discrete nursing unit in the Scripps Green Hospital. A fully staffed core laboratory provides technical support for specialized research assays; preparation and storage of specimens; samples of normal blood for the laboratories of TSRI; and a DNA/RNA tissue bank, established in cooperation with the Department of Surgery.

In addition, the GCRC operates a computer center with an environment for the management of clinical data, genetic sequencing, and other statistical needs. Additional staff include a biostatistician for consultation on study design and statistical analysis and professional and administrative personnel to help with study design, preparation of protocols, and budgetary matters.

Last year, the GCRC provided these services for about 6600 outpatient visits, processed about 15,700 specimens, and supported 57 computer-based research protocols from TSRI and Scripps Clinic Medical Group. Sixty-six patient-related research protocols were carried out in the GCRC; the titles and principal investigators of most of them are listed at the end of this report. Many of these projects are described under the names of the individual investigators elsewhere in this volume. A total of 115 investigators made use of the GCRC's facilities, and 110 peer-reviewed papers and abstracts resulting from GCRC-assisted research were published last year.

INVESTIGATOR

PROTOCOL TITLE

Ernest Beutler, MD

Epidemiologic Studies of Hemochromatosis and the Creation of an Anonymized DNA Database